2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL.84 



In the meantime that side of entomology which deals with the nam- 

 ing and classification of insects had heen going on steadily and with 

 an increasing number of workers. The great majority of these work- 

 ers concerned themselves with the structure of the adult insects alone. 

 Only here and there was to he found a man who studied the life 

 histories and the early stages. These workers in taxonomy, as it is 

 called, were scattered all over Europe, some of them connected with 

 the large museums, others (and these were the majority) men in all 

 walks of life who were attracted to the subject first as collectors and 

 then as describers of species. The result was that in Europe before 

 economic entomology began to be c(jnsidered seriously, ])erha])s the 

 great majority of the insects of that continent were to be found in 

 the collections, had been classified, and had been given names. To a 

 moderate extent the same statement applies to the other principal 

 countries of the world. The European museums and collections con- 

 tained thousands of species of exotic insects. Travelers in all ])arts 

 of the world collected si>ecimens and sent them home. Amateurs in 

 some cases supported traveling collectors. 



In the United States there were many amateur collectors and per- 

 sons interested in the study of classification. In the early days it 

 was necessary to send very many forms to the Ein'ojK-an authorities 

 for identification, but as the years went on, large centers for sys- 

 tematic entomological work were started, skilled experts w'ere devel- 

 oped, and by the time, for example, that Doctor Eitch began his work 

 in New York there were already a number of American systematic 

 entomologists who were j^erfectly competent to handle the Ameri- 

 can species and who had made such reputations that the h'uiopean 

 organizations took them very seriously and in some cases a little later 

 elected a few of them to honorary membcrshi]) in their learned 

 societies. 



When the economic entomologist began to api)ear he was frowned 

 down u])on by the systematic workers and considered on the whole to 

 be an unscientific dabbler of the farmer class. 'Jliis view held esj^e- 

 cially in l-'uropean centers of learning, but it existed also in this 

 country. With the ra])id increase in the number of workers toward 

 the end of the last century, however, with the enlargement of the 

 departments of instruction in the universities and colleges, and with 

 the admirable scientific work which was turned out by the applied 

 workers, their status was soon established. In fact, there was evi- 

 denced on the part of some of the museum ]>eople a certain amount 

 of bitterness at the larger salaries i)aid to tlu' nun working in eco- 



